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Draft introduction to my personal databases

(At this point in time, this manual is unfortunately rather incomplete).

 

Parallel with, and as a natural part of the research process, I have build a complex of data tables containing references to publications on South Africa, general professional literature, newspaper articles, chronologies, institutions and reference persons, research concepts, research notes, and research funding. In combination, they constitute a useful tool for African Studies, History, Development Research and related disciplines.

The following databases are (more or less) accessible via Instant Web Publishing. Some of them will open automatically in a specific layout, others can be opened by choosing the guest account, and some will require a password. In this instance, the Account/Username will most often be “visitor” and the password one of those used elsewhere on the website. If you need a password, contact me. Only those databases that are open for work at any given moment can be accessed. If you want other tables opened, "skype" or e-mail me. Access also depends on your computer's security setup. You must be able to access, not only the usual port 80, but also port 591-599 on my computer/home server.

 

In due course, the following databases will be put on the web:

LitSA South Africa Literature LitSA literature on Southern Africa

LitProf general literature LitProf professional literature

ContAcad research contacts ContAcad research contacts

HistOrd ordforråd ResWords research vocabulary

HistOrd ordforråd ConfList list of conferences

ResFund funding list ResFund funding list

SAyears chronology SAyears chronology

SAyears chronology Solidarity chronology

SAshort abbreviations SAshort abbreviations

SAwords vocabulary SAwords Southern Africa vocabulary

Stoltens debate notes blog Stolten's media debate blog

ITsoft software list ITsoft software list

Manual Literature Manual literature

The first two records in a database will sometimes contain information (first in Danish, second in English, or vice versa) on the content of the base. It will often be practical to go to the last record in a record set and then move backwards through the records, since the last will usually be the most recent/updated entry. Depending on the speed of your connection, it could be a few minutes before all records are available.
Not all fields are available in the layouts published online.
In most data tables, interactive editing of single fields will be possible, and guests are actually welcome to contribute with new records, information or corrections. When doing so, however, please notify me by e-mail, since the databases are stored on PCs and a NAS that need to be synchronized.

You can view any specific record in several different ways. Layout “guest” will often give an overview of the available fields. Choose layout “notes” to see or make comments or “footnotes” to copy relevant fields to your own document as a reference. View as “Form” will give the best impression of the single record, while View as “Table” will allow you to see multiple records as a list.

When you log out of a database, you will most likely be sent back to the Instant Web Publishing page. If you want to return to my website, and you have not opened the database in a new browser window, you may have to start over logging on to my welcome/index page.

 

About the databases:

  • LitSA: This database is my main research database. It contains more than 6200 partly annotated references dealing with Southern African history and historiography, development research, general literature on Africa, African Studies, aid policy, international solidarity, NGO-issues, study technique, etc.
  • LitProf: More than 2000 references to professional, non-fiction literature on history, politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, social science theory and methods, etc. that I have found useful. Most comments are in Danish.
  • ContAcad: List containing over 1600 academic contacts, institutions, and organisations relevant for research in South African history and social science in general, including African Studies centres, History departments, libraries, archives, NGOs, researchers, etc (access are restricted to certain fields).
  • ResWords : Vocabulary / ordforråd. General historical and philosophical, technical and professional terms/concepts are explained or discussed. Mostly in Danish.
  • ResFund: Database containing information on scholarships, grants and other kinds of research funding. So far, mostly in Danish.
  • ConfList: This is a list of conferences, upcoming and old, which can be ordered by date, subject etc.
  • SAyears: Chronological list of events in South African history including race legislation and international solidarity. So far, most explanations are still in Danish.
  • Solidarity Chronology: Events in international solidarity with the liberation movements and transitional aid to South Africa. Especially developments in the Nordic Anti-apartheid movements.
  • SAshort: List of abbreviations for organisations, political parties, institutions, etc. with importance for history and politics, South Africa, Africa, development aid, and third world issues.
  • SAwords: Explanations of words, expressions and concepts peculiar to South African cultural history or relating to Southern Africa, African Studies, Development Research, Anthropology etc.
  • Stolten's media debate blog: Mixed thematic notes and comments, extracts from newspaper and journal articles on history, welfare state, development policies, foreign policy, and other topical issues from the political debate. Feel free to add your comments. Mostly in Danish.
  • Manual literature: Practical and technical manuals, computer literature and handbooks.
  • ITsoft software list: All kinds of software and hardware that I have used at some point in time.

 
LitSA
                  

 

A short introduction to the non-fiction database litSA.

 

LITSA is a research database, which contains partly annotated literature references to South African social conditions and history. It is primarily built on literature dealing with the history of the freedom movement and the trade unions, the historiographical debate, economic backgrounds of race discrimination, the reform policy and the democratic transformation process.

The database consequently has its strongpoints dealing with books related to South African history writing and historiography, economy and politics, the labour movement, Danish books on apartheid, periodicals, international solidarity, resistance culture, academic discussions, higher education, race relations, ANC, the Communist Party and the liberation struggle.

On the other hand, the database contains less literature on local history, ethnicity, language relations, anthropology, geography, archaeology and foreign relations.

LITSA is one out of a complex of databases, which also contains related tables with facts on South Africa, including chronologies, a list of the apartheid legislation, lists of abbreviations, word explanations, biographical information on authors, address lists, and facts on research funding.

 

The documentation on South Africa is better than on any other country in Africa. Unlike the rest of the continent South Africa cannot, at least when it comes to the academic sphere, be considered an ordinary third world country. During several generations White South Africa has been capable of financing and organising the necessary apparatus of academics, journalists, statisticians, archivists and librarians, required to create and maintain a broad track of information on social activities and life experiences.

Any catalogue of South African authors will confirm that knowledge-power in that country was reserved for the white community until recently. This does not mean however that the problems of the black majority have not been dealt with. On the contrary, the literature clearly reflects principal problems of race and class. Moreover, a gradually growing number of publications have been written by Africans, Indians, and Coloureds and on top of that comes the progressive exile literature. Earlier, "forgotten," unpublished works by Black authors have also begun to surface.

Because of the international nature of "the great story" of South Africa, not only during the last few years, but also through the colonial ties of the past, much relevant research material are scattered over a great deal of countries, universities, archives and libraries. At the same time, most conventional bibliographies predominantly contains monographs and other complete works and only seldom the necessary mix of official documents and sources, debating articles, activist input or research relevant conference papers. Together these problems make the sharing of research bibliographies and personal databases important.

 

LitSA contains more than 6000 items and is currently updated. The format is FileMaker. The database was originally developed in dBase IV, later translated to MS Access and even later to FileMaker.

The value of this kind of personal research database, compared to larger library catalogues, lies in the representation of many different types of materials from a large range of deposits, a focus that covers a not too broad area of interest, the annotations and notes included, and the proven usefulness of the materials listed.

I hope that this database will be useful for both students, academics, journalists and others.

The database form implies that no special mutual order exists between entries/index-cards, but that self-chosen combined criteria can be used for any kind of inquiries.

The field names of the database have been chosen mainly after inspirations from The Danish Royal Library database, REX, and from an early Revelation-based database of the Scandinavian institute of African Studies.

 

Field names are: Author, Title, Source, Publ. Year, Pages, Key Words, Annotation, Publ. Type, Library, Notes, Use in Work.

In the full access version, the database also contains fields for order of priority, history, usability, etc. The Key Words field is not yet fully updated in English; some key words are only in Danish.  

The idea with such a field structure is of course, to make it possibly to sort, make combined search patterns and separate subsets of information for specific purposes. This means that you can ask for works by a certain author, a partially known book title, a certain periodical, working papers from a specific research centre or publishing firm and you might be able to see in what library the book is placed.

 

Subject words in English (not fully updated yet), can be, for instance: Apartheid, anthropology, liberals, radicals, political economy, late apartheid reform policy, historiography, black politics, capitalism, ideology, sociology, race relations, RDP, GEAR, foreign policy, rural areas, trade unions, economics, theory, statistics, mining industry, migrant work, Afrikanerdom, colonialism, colonialism of a special type, the region, 20s, 70s, ANC, ICU, SACTU, SACP, NP, UDF, urban areas, development research, political consignments, organisations, political parties, research discussion, economic growth, strikes, protest, education, suppression, whites, social structure, bantustans, homelands, international solidarity, AAMs, middle class, business, consciousness, influx control, Wiehanh, liberalism, Marxism, Buthelezi, Mandela, nation and class, tourism, women, feminism, sex, intellectuals, universities, study techniques, writing techniques, methods, methodology, sanctions, everyday life history, military history, health history, transformation process, human rights, nation and class, the church, social psychology, identity, ethnicity, the state, racism, Sweden, Denmark, aid, and a great many others, plus combinations of these words.

 

Search on subject words in Danish could be: Historiografi, liberale, radikale, transformationsprocessen, udviklingsforskning, statistik, mineindustrien, migrantarbejde, menneskerettigheder, segregation, afrikanerdom, regionen, kolonialisme, 1800-t, 30erne, 80erne, ANC, ICU, PAC, BC, SACTU, SACP, NP, UDF, racerelationer, racisme, kirken, staten, byområderne, landområderne, udviklingsforskning, politiske partier, organisationer, forskningsdiskussionen, økonomi, vækst, sanktioner, strejker, protest, uddannelse, universiteter, undertrykkelse, vold, koloni, frontier, hvide, socialstruktur, bantustans, homelands, international solidaritet, hverdagshistorie, medicin, sundhed, mellemklassen, erhvervslivet, militæret, etnicitet, identitet, bevidsthed, socialpsykologi,  indflytningskontrol, Wiehanhrapporten, liberalisme, marxisme, Buthelezi, Mandela, NGOer, nation og klasse, skønlitteratur, kultur, turisme, kvinder, zuluer, Natal, Cape, studieteknik, didaktik, skriveteknik, metode, metodologi, etc.

 

Search words in the field Publ. type (type of material) can be: autobiographies, biography, fiction, periodical, journal title, thesis, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., white paper, working paper, annual report, statistics, anthology, reference work, biography, bibliography, commission report, speech, document, source type, archive, government report, newspaper, article, monograph etc.

Or in Danish: Periodikatitel, afhandling, speciale, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., thesis, hvidbog, universitært arbejdspapir, årsrapport, statistik, Antologi, opslagsværk, biografi, bibliografi, fotos, kommissionsbetænkning, statstryk, tale, udtalelse, dokument, kildetype, arkiv, regeringsrapport, avis, artikel, monografi, etc.

 

A few examples on useful searches (in Danish, sorry):

Key Words = transformationsprocessen og Key Words = uddannelse

Publ. Type = periodikatitel og Library = CDR (Relevante periodika på CUF).

Publ. Type = dansk (Værker på dansk om SA).

Publ. = Ravan og Year = 1987 (Bøger udgivet af Ravan Press i 1987).

Publ. Type = afhandling og Library = UN (Afhandlinger om SA fra University of Natal).

Library = hes og Use in Work = købtsa (Værker anskaffet af Hans Erik i Sydafrika).

Library = hes /81 (Fotokopier, perm no. 81 i Hans Eriks kopisamling).

Use in Work = anbefalet (Bøger, som det ville være rart at have på institutbiblioteket).

 

In the field, Library, it will in many cases be indicated in which library the work can be found and in some cases, catalogue designation will be listed. In other cases the field content will refer to a full-text or journal website. The abbreviations below refer to some of these libraries:

 

AI            Africa Institute, Pretoria

BL            British Library, London

Carolina  Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek

CAS        Center for Afrikastudier, København (can be accessed through KB/REX)

CDR        Center for Udviklingsforskning, København (former, now DIIS)

COPRI    Center for freds- og konfliktforskning, Kbh. (former, now DIIS)

DagHam Dag Hammarskjöldbiblioteket, Uppsala

DCISM    International Studies & Human Rights, Cph. (DIIS)

DPB         Danmarks Pædagogiske Bibliotek

DCM       Det Danske Center for Menneskerettigheder, Kbh. (now DIIS)

DUPI       Dansk Udenrigspolitisk Institut, Kbh. (former, now DIIS)

hes /n /t  Fag i H.E. Stoltens fotokopisamling eller arkiv / tekst på Stoltens computer

IB            Ishøj Bibliotek

ICS          Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London

IDS          Institute of Development Studies, Sussex

IM           Institut  for menneskerettigherder, Kbh.

ISS          Institut for Internationale Studier, Kbh. (former, now DIIS))

KB           Det kongelige bibliotek, Kbh.

KBF         Det kongelige bibliotek, Kbh (former Fiolstræde)

KBA        Det kongelige bibliotek, Kbh (former Amager)

KBsv       Kungliga biblioteket, Stockholm

Killie        Killie Campbell Library, Durban

LC            Library of Congress

MS           Mellemfolkeligt Samvirkes Bibliotek (former)

NAI         Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala

Oslo         Oslo Universitetsbibliotek

OUB        Syddansk Universitet / Odense universitetsbibliotek

Rhodes    Rhodes University, Grahamstown

RUC        Roskilde universitetsbibliotek, RUb

SAL         South African Library now National Library of South Africa in Cape Town)

SOAS      School of Asian and African Studies, London

State       State Library or State Archives , Pretoria (now National Library of South Africa and NASA)

UBA        Universitetsbiblioteket, Amager (KB)

UCT        University of Cape Town Libraries

UN           University of Kwazulu-Natal Libraries

Unisa       University of South Africa Libraries, Pretoria

UPE         University of Port Elizabeth Libraries

Upp.Uni. Uppsala Universitet

UW          University of the Witwatersrand Libraries

Web         World Wide Web. Download from Internet.

 

In my opinion, academics and researchers should share their knowledge and sources with as great openness as possible, and as the initiator of this database, I hope that my work can be used by others with interest in South African history and society.

However, since the database has been constructed through several years of work in the field of study and could be highly functional for those, who understand to use it, it is my hope that the "code of ethics" outlined below will be followed by frequent users.

(i) In the case of extensive use of the database for a single academic or journalistic work, I would find it appropriate, if this is mentioned for instance in a preface or in the footnotes.

(ii) The database as a whole should only be distributed to other users or institutions after agreement with the initiator.

(iii) Copyright to the database as such is reserved by the initiator, since it might constitute the basis of a future bibliographic publication.

(iv) If users should want to expand the database, on the other hand, I would be pleased to receive such a superstructure as feedback, just as I will be prepared to forward updatings of the database.

 

If you want to receive a full copy of the database on CD, or if you have experienced difficulties while working with it, you are welcome to contact me.

 

 

ContAcad

 

Introduction to the academic contact database ContAcad. (Sorry, only in Danish so far).

Kortfattet introduktion til kontaktdatabasen contacad.

 

ContAcad er en kontaktdatabase, der indeholder oplysninger om akademikere, forfattere og institutioner, der har arbejdet med historie- og samfundsforskning med relevans for Sydafrikanske forhold.

ContAcad er et ud af flere dataregistre i et FileMaker-baseret databasekompleks, der også indeholder andre relaterede tabeller med oplysninger om Sydafrika, derunder litteraturreferencer, kronologier, oversigt over apartheidlovgivningen, forkortelseslister, ordforklaringer og oplysninger om danske fonde, der støtter forskning på området.

ContAcad er en persondatabase med begrænset adgang for en begrænset brugergruppe. Den kan indeholde følsomme oplysninger og vurderinger, som bør behandles med etisk varsomhed.

Der er begrænset adgang til visse felter og layouts. Søgemuligheder og layouts er stadig under udvikling.

 

Sydafrika er mere veldokumenteret end noget andet land i Afrika. Til forskel fra resten af kontinentet kan Sydafrika, i det mindste for den akademiske sfæres vedkommende, næppe regnes som et 3. verdens land. Det hvide Sydafrika har gennem flere generationer været i stand til at finansiere og organisere det apparat af forskere og andre intellektuelle, journalister, statistikere, arkivarer og bibliotekarer, som nødvendigvis kræves for at skabe og vedligeholde et bredt informationsspor, der kan fastholde det menneskelige samfunds aktiviteter og erfaringer.

Det akademiske engagement i Sydafrikas  problemer har dog været meget internationalt, hvilket afspejler sig i datalisten.

Grundet basens ophavssituation er danskere med interesse for Sydafrikanske forhold nok overrepræsenteret.

ContAcad indeholder i visse tilfælde også referencer til pensionerede og afdøde forfattere.

Engelsksprogede søgeord findes desværre kun i begrænset omfang indtil videre.

 

I den publicerede, FileMarker-baserede udgave af basen findes følgende søgbare felter:

Name, Department, Institute, Address, City, Country, Notes, Line of Work, Data, References, Relation, Tel.inst,. Fax inst., E-mail inst. Web inst, m.fl.

 

Meningen med en sådan feltstruktur er, at man kan sortere og udskille delmængder af informationer til specifikke formål.

Man kan altså i begrænset omfang lede efter akademikere på en bestemt institution, adresser på institutter, arkiver og biblioteker, deltagere i bestemte seminarer, folk der er interviewet, medlemmer af akademiske og andre organisationer mv.

Man kan også kortlægge forskellige forfatteres arbejdsområder og opbygge deres biografier.

 

Feltet Department indeholder navnet på institut, afdeling, undergruppe.

Feltet Institute indeholder navnet på universitet eller hovedorganisation.

 

Søgeord i feltet Line of work kan bl.a. være: Arkiver, bibliotek, solidaritet, museum eller et særligt emneområde.

Feltet Notes indeholder bl.a. biografiske og bibliografiske oplysninger.

 

Eksempler på søgninger kunne være:

Line of work = Arkiver og Country = South Africa (Arkiver i Sydafrika)

Institute = Witwatersrand (Relevante forskere på Wits)

Country = USA (Amerikanske Sydafrikaforskere og institutioner)

Data = Sy1a (Besøgsmål under ophavsmandens Sydafrikarejser)

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

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